23 July 2020
The Practices of a Good Religious
Just
men depend on the grace of God rather than on their own wisdom in keeping their
resolutions. In Him they confide every undertaking, for man, indeed, proposes
but God disposes, and God’s way is not man’s. If a habitual exercise is
sometimes omitted out of piety or in the interests of another, it can easily be
resumed later. But if it be abandoned carelessly, through weariness or neglect,
then the fault is great and will prove hurtful. Much as we try, we still fail
too easily in many things. Yet we must always have some fixed purpose, especially
against things which beset us the most. Our outward and inward lives alike must
be closely watched and well ordered, for both are important to perfection.
If
you cannot recollect yourself continuously, do so once a day at least, in the
morning or in the evening. In the morning make a resolution and in the evening
examine yourself on what you have said this day, what you have done and
thought, for in these things perhaps you have often offended God and those
about you.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation
of Christ, p26
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